UPDATE:Mystery of the Map Island has been confirmed today by the Creators!

Earlier this month I discussed the possibility of there being a Poptropica Island based on Mystery of the Map; and now these recent sneak peeks definitely confirm that suspicion. Behold, the concept art for the upcoming island (after the last episode of Arabian Nights of course).

Looks like it really captures the essence of the comic really well (which you can read to completion on the sneak peek page). In other news, there's a new "Graphics Quality" setting in the settings menu. By default it's set somewhere in the middle, but to be honest, even though it's a sliding scale, it doesn't seem to offer much of a variety of options. It only lets you choose between a really low resolution and the one you're used to.

I had a dig through the code (click to see it), and it seems that there are really only three quality modes, let's call them low, medium, and high, and low is only available on phones. Beyond that, the way the quality level maps to what is actually displayed is pretty arbitrary, and it doesn't make sense to me that the players decide what quality they want to see. We want to see the highest quality possible for our computer. Most games can automatically detect what this value is and automatically use that. I think Poptropica should try to do this.

Last but not least -- the Sneak Peeks browser has had some issues/bugs, but it is now restored to working order! Click here to see it now. In case you forgot, it lets you browse at a glance through all of Poptropica's official sneak peeks, from when they started, even a couple that haven't been released yet. Enjoy!

The third and last episode of PoptropiCon Island, "Reign of Omegon," just released today for Members. If you'll recall from the end of the last episode, Omegon crashed the costume contest and left the fate of the PoptropiCon unknown. Now here's the description for the last episode:

Omegon has taken over PoptropiCon, and he won't stop until he's transformed everyone into a hench-bot. Only you can acquire the powers of the Mighty Action Force to battle Omegon and free the convention goers. Join the resistance today!

And also, the Creators released something else fun today that non-Members can also play with; Bingo for PoptropiCon! Each tile has one character, and as you play each episode, you can mark which characters you saw. Interestingly, now we finally know the names of these characters! Here's the link for you to print out and play.

New features have been added to Poptropica Realms! I'll go over them all in this post, but the major points are "Nightmare Fairies", new props, costumes, weather effects, and new abilities for high-level players. The new mining abilities are the Ground Pound, Hammerang, and Super Jump .

Ground Pound is unlocked on level 5. It lets you clear lots of land in one hit.

Hammerang on level 10. It is basically a boomerang of destruction. You throw the hammer and it destroys anything in its path. Best used with Ground Pound to completely decimate an area.

Super Jump on level 15. When activated, you jump about twice as high as normal. Somewhat underwhelming, but it synergizes well with Hammerang. Basically, press 5 to let the hammer loose, then 6 to jump up and let it spin around in circles.

When you reach Level 15, you can get the prestigous Master Creator costume. To the right you can see me wearing it. There's another new costume, the Realms Builder costume, which you can get by typing in the promo code GOREALMS on the home screen when you log in.

And the coolest thing -- weather! Each Realm type has its own type of weather phenomenon, such as snow for the Snow Realm. The effect is really detailed. The snow, for example, doesn't just go through the entire scene, but it can go down through holes in the ground. I'm really quite impressed with it. You can see how it works below:

The Master Builder impersonating me.

And also -- new interactive props! They each do something when clicked on (if they're interactive), or when stepped near (like trapdoors and explosive platforms). Be careful though, props cost a lot -- 1 Poptanium for each square that they take up, rounded up. And they don't count towards leveling up.

But not all of the new changes are favorable. New are the Twilight Pixies, little blue fairies that will fly out of nowhere. When you touch you, they steal 10 Poptanium. Ouch! Thankfully they are pretty slow to move and to maneuver, and they're nocturnal. But they come in swarms. First one, then 2, then 4; the longer they go without hitting you, the larger their numbers get. And they can pass right through walls if they want to. I call them the Nightmare Fairies. If they get overwhelming, move to the area right or left, or click the Relams button in the lower left to escape.

The Pixies are another reason I liked the old Land better than Realms. I think the old one made it easier to create things, by not taxing your Poptanium for it. And now these fairies are making it even harder, even stressful. You just can't take your time to create something big anymore without a swarm swooping in.

Last but not least. The winner of last week's Hide and Seek challenge is Barefoot Sky yet again! She's won more games than I can count right now. The image that she correctly guessed is below. This week's image was surprisingly trickier than I expected. There's another picture and another challenge waiting on the Hide & Seek page!

Our favorite Poptropica comic has now grown into an epic graphic novel! The novel is being published page by page daily on the Creators' Blog and the official page. Here's the description:

A freak thunderstorm during a hot air balloon ride rips brother and sister Oliver and Mya and their companion, Jorge, from the "normal" world to the dangerous, unpredictable, and mystical world of Poptropica. The kids embark on a perilous journey to discover the truth about this mysterious place... and the shocking reason they were brought here.

Trust me, this is not just another marketing shenanigan. Mystery of the Map is going to explain Poptropica's backstory, the secret history of why Poptropica is the way it is. Sounds exciting to me! You can read it here.

So far, what has happened is that Oliver, Jorge and Mya are on a blimp ride, when the evil Octavian time-travels the entire blimp to the prehistoric times of Poptropica, where they meet several dodo birds. They have just discovered a Viking ship. We haven't gotten to the real action yet, since they only release one page a day. If you're like me and want to read ahead, then I made this page that lets you read all the pages at once, including the unreleased ones! Check it out.

But even more exciting -- judging from some recent sneak peeks, it seems very likely that Mystery of the Map will become an island (or, I'm guessing, an episodic island) on Poptropica. Check these out:

Looking closely, they give clues about where the comic book will go (and it is going to be made into a book). But the images look like they're in a very early stage. Who knows if it is on the Island track or if it's just an idea they're throwing around? Only time will tell.

UPDATE: The Creators explained on Twitter why and how the graphic novel is different from the original comic strip. It clears up quite a lot, I think:

Wow, you’re really paying attention! Great questions. It’s all about being on Poptropica, not how one arrives. Comic Creators used school experiment, graphic novel creators used balloon trip. Comics will go on and on, for laughs, no substantial story or targeted end. Graphic novel, 12-book series, beings with Mystery of the Map, will introduce many more characters & pursue a substantial & complex story completing with 12th book. Other stores could then evolve.

As you might remember from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, when things go viral, they can make their way into Poptropica once in a while. If you log in one of these days, you'll get a special, limited-time Dressgate costume.

In case you aren't familiar with it: this image of a black and blue dress makes it look gold and white to some people (myself included) because of the light coming from behind. Apparently people get really upset when they see colors differently from someone else, so it has gone viral. And now you can support your side through Poptropica!

Last but not least! The winner of the previous Poptropica Hide & Seek contest is Incredible Coyote! Here's the image that she successfully guessed. If you missed this challenge or want to know the correct answer, there's a new one up at the Hide & Seek page. Happy guessing!

Before I go (I'm bursting with news since I've been gone for a while, sorry about that) -- have you noticed something new on the bottom of many pages on Poptropica? It's a little seal that certifies it as kid-friendly. Like we needed any convincing ;). I wonder why the Creators went for that all of a sudden. I suppose we'll never know.

Later this week I'll be back with some cool sneak peeks for upcoming episodes -- like PoptropiCon 3. Stay tuned!

This is Poptrickia, serving you tips, tricks, cheats and more on the awesome game Poptropica for free since 2010! We've got this blog (we call it the Journal), full written walkthroughs for every island and quest in existence, and videos too!